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Labor expands Orange palliative care from two beds to five
August 11, 2023
By Peter Holmes
Funding from state Labor will see Orange’s palliative care capacity at Orange Hospital rise from two beds to five, and a new section within the hospital fitted out to house patients.
Advocacy group Push For Palliative (P4P) has long been calling for an expansion of the services in Orange, with the ultimate goal of having a freestanding hospice facility.
Before the state election in March 2023 the former Liberal-National state government promised enough funds to expand the capacity from two beds to four, an announcement that was met with a happy-not-happy response from P4P.
The increase to five beds has been met with a far more positive response. This is partly due to the extra bed, but also the consultative process and the commitment for ongoing funding for staff.
"Push for Palliative has been very much involved over the last two months, and we love the consultative nature - the government is looking at really substantial data, and the data justifies the increase," P4P president Jenny Hazelton told The Orange News Examiner. "They're very serious about this and they're doing it properly."
The NSW government has committed $93 million to redevelop and refurbish palliative care units throughout the state under the World Class End of Life Care commitment, which includes new and expanded units at Westmead, Nepean, Wyong, Tamworth and Orange hospitals.
Orange Hospital currently has two designated end of life beds located on the northeast side of the hospital on the ground floor.
“Since those beds were established we have provided ongoing amenities and funded facilities for families and carers, and we are committed to assisting in any way we can with the establishment of the additional beds,” Hazelton said.
“We now need to be a little patient to enable the administrative and construction process to proceed,” she said.
Hazelton said the location of the new facility within the hospital hadn't yet been selected.
The Wyong, Nepean and Westmead Palliative Care units are scheduled to complete master planning in September and will be followed by Orange and Tamworth, with all five sites scheduled to commence construction in 2024.
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